I AM SO SORRY FOR THE LACK OF UPDATES! School is really beginning to pressure me and I'm really afraid of failing the final test. We call it BAC, I think the americans call it SAT...ANYWAY, my whole life depends on this, and I really don't want to fail it. So it ended up swallowing up most of my time.

For this chapter, I've focused more on the humor and the deepening of the plot. ^^ You'll be surprised by some events.

I've been seriosuly inspired by some comics in the Exo-Force magazines I found in the wikia and the comics itself. I'll explain why everything is relying on the Golden City Era Battle Machines.

Great, now thanks to this fanfic, I've become a real fan of Exo-Force. I'm addicted to it. WOOO HOOO!

Hikaru gently landed the Sky Guardian in the docking bay. He had been gone for only a few hours, but he felt like he had left the Golden City for years. As expected, the family had taken the news of Kokujo's death very hard. He had tried to console them a little, but it was difficult, judging that he was a close friend of the boy, both of them having met at middle school. And both parents refused to put the blame on the aerial pilot.
The little brother, however, was not happy. After making a huge tantrum, Hikaru was finally glad to be released from the insults and taunts.

With a throbbing headache and a heavy heart, he trudged out of the area only to find Rika. The older sibling of Ryo stood there, her arms crossed, an irritated expression on her face. "Where were you?" she asked. "You were gone for quite a while now."

Hikaru shrugged. "Did I miss anything?" he asked, rubbing his head.

Rika shrugged. "Sensei wanted to see you, but otherwise no."

The pilot nodded. "All right. Wanna come? I could use some company…"

Rika grinned, and linked arms with him. "All right then! To the Golden Tower Flyboy!"

The next thing Hikaru knew was that he was being dragged against his will towards the center of the Golden City. Any person would be slightly irritated by the action, but Hikaru (he blamed it on his exhaustion) didn't care.

He smiled. "Yeah let's go."

Ha-Ya-To was slumped in his pilot's seat, staring at the setting sun in the distance in his deactivated Aero Booster. His feet were resting on the control board, his arms crossed behind his head, his eyes closed. He had heard about Kokujo's death, and it reminded him that the war wasn't over yet.

This war was awesome in the sense that he got to meet all his new friends, Ryo, Hikaru, Takashi…but especially because that he got to learn the true feeling of being able to fly. He smiled and looked down at his Aero Booster. He rubbed the armor of the Blue Falcon. He felt a connection to the battle machine, far from being as strong as Ryo's, but he felt a small one.

But the real downside of this war: they had to fight tin cans which kept them up at night. The need to rescue Keiken had been an exhausting mission. Almost impossible too.

They hadn't been able to sleep for a whole week, and there was a moment when they nearly ran out of food. Takashi had force the food down Ryo's throat, since he was the youngest (18 years old, the rest of them being in between 19 and 22) and had to be in complete control since he was their 'strategy' dude and their only mechanic.

Ha-Ya-To smirked at the memory. He pitied the young mechanic for the blast in his pride, but someone had to eat the food…and it was normal for the oldest to pick on the youngest.

Ah those were good times.

"Ha-Ya-To. Get out of your sleeping trance. Keiken needs you."

The red head turned and looked at Takashi with a deadpanned expression. "Really?"

Takashi sighed. "Yes he did. Now don't make me drag you out of there."

Ha-Ya-To yawned. He looked at the controls. "When the robots will have cut the trees, the world will miss having a good snack." He said simply, but with extreme seriousness.

Takashi deadpanned at him. "What," he said "are you talking about?"

"I dunno. Just felt like the thing to say." Ha-Ya-To said, before jumping out of his seat and dashing out of the room. "LAST ONE AT THE GOLDEN TOWER IS MECA ONE!"

Takashi was still trying to figure out what the red-head had just said. "That makes no sense." He finally said. "Where did his common sense go?" he sighed. He rubbed his head. "Whatever…"

Ryo looked down at the GPS gear. After the tracking device, the code-brick was somewhere around here…He landed his Mini Rocket Speeder in the forest. After strapping a blade on his back, putting a gun in his holster and grabbing the tracking device, he started walking down the forest.

The tracking device started beeping gently, telling him he was going in the right direction. Ryo's eyes narrowed. "Strange…I never heard of code-bricks this far from the Golden City. We're getting closer to the Sentai Fortress." He tried to shrug off the tension and pressure that was building inside him. He felt something was wrong, but he couldn't pinpoint it.

He stepped on a twig, which made a loud snapping sound. It shattered the heavy silence of the forest.

Ryo came to an abrupt stop.

"Of course. That's what's wrong. There's no sound."

Indeed, the forest was dead quiet. Normally at that time of the day, the birds would be chirping, the squirrels would be rustling the leaves for acorns and nuts. The wolves would be hunting for food, and the rabbits jumping in all directions.

But there was none of that. Just complete silence.

Dread fell over Ryo. The Robots were nearby. They must've reached the area before him.

Crouching, he silently crawled over a tiny hill. Hiding safely behind a tree, he peered past it.

THERE! Two Dark Panthers, along with three sentries and one Iron Drone were patrolling around an area. And much to Ryo's horror, just behind the metal enemies was glowing soil. The code-brick must be right there! The robots must not have noticed it yet. But now…how in the world was he going to get it?

Ryo took out his gun. He looked at the tracking device. Well looks like he didn't have a choice. He threw the tiny machine behind a boulder in the opposite of his hiding place. It clattered against the rocks, making the robots pause in their tracks. A sentry turned. It stared at the area. "There's no life-forms. My scopes blank."

The robots resumed their travel, more aware of their surroundings. Ryo charged his blaster and fired at the tracking device.

It exploded, sending molten pieces of metal in all directions.
The patrol paused, turned, and raced off to investigate. Only a Dark Panther with a Sentry remained. Ryo relaxed slightly. Now things would be easier for him. He drew his katana. He came to a crouch, aimed, and threw the blade.

It hit the robot piloting the Dark Panther. The devastator sparked dangerously, before erupting in a column of fire.

The robot in the sentry fired three blasts in Ryo's direction. But the mechanic rolled to safety before firing a row of green beams with his gun. The first beam went wide, but the other two hit the iron drone, chewing the armor to shreds, and frying the circuits, killing the engine.

With no one left protecting the code-brick, Ryo scrambled quickly, and dug his fist in the dirt. After what seemed like hours of digging (reality being two minutes), he dug out a glowing rectangular brick that had random numbers and letters on it.

"Got it!" he gasped. He raced out of the area and towards his Mini Rocket Speeder, mentally congratulating himself for his quick thinking, until he found a very disturbing sight.

His Mini Rocket Speeder was lying on its side, demolished. The patches of armor had been ripped off and torn to pieces. The canon had taken a heavy beating, having a huge gap in cylinder and the pod on which it rested on had been snapped in several pieces.

It was completely unusable.

Ryo face palmed. "I KNEW I should've taken my toolbox. Why the hell do I to keep on ignoring my instincts?"

He tried to roll the battle machine over, but gave up when he heard the fuel inside swish loudly, and in areas where it shouldn't be in the first place.

The engineer shook his head. "Better off not move it too much. The gas could touch wires and cause a spark and catch fire." There was a tiny 'clink' sound coming from behind him.

Ryo grabbed his blaster and spun around to stare at the evil face of…a squirrel. The furry creature was holding a piece of the speeder, and was hitting it on the ground repeatedly, trying to understand what it was.

Ryo relaxed and lowered his blaster. He placed the code-brick next to the wreckage and crouched in front of the squirrel. "Hey there little guy. How's life? You gotta jet-pack I can borrow?" he mentally whacked himself for talking to an animal, but he was hoping that the random words would give him an idea.

The squirrel looked at him with its giant black eyes, before continuing its investigation on the scrap metal.

Ryo watched in amusement for a moment.

Finally the squirrel had enough of the finding, bored that it wasn't responding, and began to walk towards the wreckage. Who knows? Maybe the bandana dude might have some nuts he could lend. It took a couple of steps, before stopping, ears twitching.

It chattered madly, before shooting up a tree like it had been stung by a hornet.

Ryo frowned. "Why would-?"

Something hit him on the back of the head. Hard.

"HEY!" he yelled, spinning around. Seeing no one, he looked down at what had been thrown. It was lying a good distance from the wreckage. Curiosity got the best of him. He walked towards it and picked it up.

"What is-?" he instantly shut up when he saw it was a timed bomb. "Aw shi-"

Everything within four square feet was blasted to bits. Ryo was sent flying across the air before crashing into a boulder. He screamed as pain surged through his veins, and the rattling of bones shook his muscles. He hit the boulder, bounced off the rock before smashing against the ground, burnt, injured, bleeding heavily, and pain throbbing through his limbs.

Ryo opened his eyes. "I…can't…move…" he whispered. He gasped in pain and wished he didn't. Pain surged through his skull. How in the world did he survive that explosion and collision?

He heard something walking towards him. A large black and purple leg landed in front of him. A Dark Panther. Something-most likely a robot-grabbed a fistful of his hair and yanked his face from the ground.

Ryo screamed in pain. He stared fearfully at the silver metallic grin and the blaring red eyes. "Where's the code-brick?"

Ryo looked at him, but was too weak to answer.

"WHERE IS IT!" the robot shook him violently.

Ryo gave another scream, before falling limp. The robot made a sort of hissing sound. "He fainted. Pathetic."

"Destroy him." An Iron Drone in a sentry ordered.

"No. He knows the location of the code-brick. We'll take him, and then give him a new definition of pain until he gives us its location."

The robot picked him up, and threw him in a Shadow Crawler's prison sphere. "Here's a free ride to your doom. Sorry about the lack of leather seats." It said.

The group started moving, and headed back towards the southern side of the mountain, quite proud of their catch. But little did they know how close they were to the code-brick.

Hikaru and Rika found themselves standing in the middle of Keiken's office, alone. After rapping the door, entering when they heard no response, they stood in an awkward silence, neither of them knowing what to say.

Finally, Rika tried to strike up a conversation. "So…uh…where's the code-brick?" she asked.

Hikaru shrugged. "A member of the team gave it to Keiken. After that, I don't know."

"What do you think it does?"

"Ask Ryo."

"Right." Another silence fell over them. "Where is he by the way? I haven't seen him all morning."

"I'm guessing he's with his battle machines in the lab. He loves them."

Rika blushed. "I'm so embarrassed." She muttered. "I have a younger brother who's in love battle machines."

Hikaru gave her a weird look. "Hey, it isn't that bad" He was blasted with a death glare. "Or is it?"

"Hikaru…we're twins. TWINS! Now everyone thinks that I'm the same!" She buried her face in her hands, before glaring at him. She stared at him intently, her eyes becoming more and more filled with irritation.

"WILL YOU TALK?" She ended up yelling. "CAN YOU ACTUALLY MAKE LONG SENTENSES, OR ARE YOU JUST PLAIN STUPID?"

Hikaru snapped his head back towards her, completely surprised. "Err…" Being a loner, he wasn't too sure how to strike up a conversation. "What do you want to know?"

Rika groaned. "Seriously. I mean you're more social with Takashi. TAKASHI! And you can barely stand one another!"

Hikaru rolled his eyes. "Oh come on, that was before." He ran a hand through his hair. "So what do you want to know?" he repeated.

Rika sighed. "I don't know, how about your life, you know, BEFORE the rebellion?" she spoke as though Hikaru didn't have a life before the event.

The aerial pilot rolled his eyes. "Fine. I was born in Canada, Ottawa. I spent most of my life there, before leaving the place to go America. There, I got the job of flying passenger planes from the US to Europe and way back."

Rika perked up. "Wait, you said you were testing machines right?"

Hikaru nodded. "That was later. When I got bored with the job, I had two choices. One was to enter the military, who was desperate to get a talented pilot, or to do the testing thing."

Rika face-palmed. "You worked in some place for a whole year, and you don't even know what it's called."

Hikaru reddened slightly. "It's not that I didn't know! It's just with the rebellion and all, it just slipped from my mind!"

Rika sighed. "Right. I'm supposed to believe that?" She rubbed her forehead. "You guys are impossible. I'm willing to bet that you don't even know your time tables."

Hikaru's face flared. "Of course I do! Who do you take me for? I'm not Takashi."

"All right, what seven time fourteen?"

"Easy it's…um…uh…"

Rika grinned evilly. "And there you have it."

"I KNOW THEM! There are just times you have to calm down and think about it." Hikaru stammered.

"The answer's ninety-eight." Rika immediately replied. "Though you deny it, you're as bad as Takashi."

"Takashi's a dork! I'm smarter than him!"

"Riiiiiiggggghhhhhhhht." Rika said fighting hard not to laugh. "Of what country is the city of Phnom Penh capital of?"

"THAT PLACE IS IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE! A PLACE WITH NO IMPORTANTCE!"

"And that place appears to be my home."

The two pilots turned to face Keiken who stood in the middle of the doorway, his eyes slightly narrowed, and feigning to be hurt. "I can understand that you two are enjoying your little game, which I find quite amusing, but we have important matters to discuss. Come with me." he turned and began to walk out. "Oh and Hikaru, Phnom Penh is the capital of Cambodia. Not that Rika knew this in the first place, right my dear?"

Rika turned bright red. "I…uh…"

"I thought so. Now come on."

The two pilots walked silently out of the office, and followed their leader. Hikaru whispered to Rika: "Is it true that you didn't know the country?"

The girl shrugged. "I just thought it was something invented. I heard Ryo blabbing about it before…not too sure why."

Keiken stood in front of the Blade Titan, patiently waiting for Takashi to arrive. After leading the duo he found in his office here, where Ha-Ya-To was already located, feeling slightly out of place. Nevertheless, at the sight of the duo, he instantly returned to his joyful and playful self.

Keiken thought about starting, when he noticed Takashi running towards him, completely out of breath. "Sorry I'm late Sensei." he said. "I've looked everywhere, but I couldn't find Hitomi."

"That's all right. Hitomi knows about this." He faced the group. "All three of you, listen to me, I've got something important to tell you." He took a deep breath. "As we know, Meca One has been destroyed, and we have managed to stop the robot advance in the lower parts of the northern mountain. However, I've got a report that the robots have a small fortress in the surroundings of the Kokeih Bridge."

"Isn't that the bridge which is situated just below the Sentai Fortress?" Takashi asked. "I thought it was blasted to pieces during the battle against the Striking Venom."

Keiken nodded. "The robots have attacked at several places at once during the battle of the Striking Venom. Some smaller outposts, such as the Plitania and the Gerundia have been unable to withstand the momentum of the attack. It's how the robots entered the mountain. Now for the report I was talking about," the elder turned and grabbed a scroll from a table. He unrolled it, and smoothened it. "Come here." He ordered the pilots.

Ha-Ya-To peered over Keiken's shoulder. "Isn't that the map of that outpost…what was it called again? Sikera?"

"Shikara" Takashi corrected. "I used to work in the surroundings of that outpost before the rebellion." The ground-born pilot looked at his leader. "What does this have to do with anything?"

Keiken spoke. "I was coming to that. Now as Takashi correctly said, there is a mine near this outpost. The reason why I want to talk to you about this is because this outpost has become a strategic point for both us and the robots." He took out a map of the northern part of the mountain. He pointed to the lower right part of the map. "The outpost is situated around here. We are here. Now as you can see, Shikara has a bridge that is directly linked to the southern side of the mountain. The robots, surprisingly, do not use this passage for reinforcements, but they use it for the passage of prisoners, fuel and information."

"So you want us to take control of that base? But I don't understand. We already have numerous bridges that connect to the southern part of the mountain. And if it's not a bridge used for reinforcements, what's the point of capturing it. Sure it will bother the robots, but I don't think that it'll really damage them as much as you hope." Hikaru said.

Keiken smiled. "Clearly, you haven't been in those mines nor met the people living in the surroundings of the outpost." He said. He turned to the others. "As Hikaru intelligently said, there's no point in attacking the outpost if we just want to cut their fuel supply, but there's a little more. I mentioned a mine nearby remember? This mine, situated here," he pointed at a red dot a little above the position of the Shikara Fortress. "Has some minerals called Lythanium. Remember the Striking Venom ad the Mobile Devastator? Both Battle Machines had this special armor which cold endure any kind of damage inflicted by our guns. We analyzed the armor used, and found out that it was a thick coat of tenatium. But after retrieving some pieces of the destroyed battle machines, I figured out that there was more than just that. Placed just beneath the layer of tenatium, we found an old mineral used mostly by miners: Lythanium."

"Wait." Takashi said, beginning to see why Keiken was so interested in the outpost. "Knowing that most of the Lythanium is in the lower part of the Northern side of the mountain, and that there's a minority in the southern side, the robots purposely chose those areas to colonize in order to get better armor."

"Exactly." Keiken replied.

"And if we can cut most of their resources," Rika said, "they'll have to use their own, highly limited amount to keep going. And since we'll have a larger supply, we'll be able to use their own findings against them."

Keiken smiled. They were finally seeing the point. "And once the robot's supply of Lythanium has been exhausted, they'll have to return to use older minerals, such as Intractium, and more importantly, steel, the most basic of the metals."

"Okay." Ha-Ya-To said. "Now that we know why it's so important to snag this place, do we know how strong the troops are?"

"One of our spies has reported that there is a very large number of Shadow Crawlers and Storm Lashers."

Hikaru's eyes narrowed. "Our Jungle Battle Machines have been completely destroyed. Even with the huge updates given to our Golden City Battle Machines, do you think we'll be able to push them back?"

"Naturally," Keiken said, "you'll be escorted with a squadron of Golden Guardians, and Hitomi will go with you."

The dyed-blue haired boy shook his head. "But will it be enough?"

Keiken smiled. "You'll be surprised of the new updates Ryo has given to our beloved mechanics and to your battle machines."

"All right." Ha-Ya-To said. "Who's leading this battle?" he asked.

"Since he has more knowledge of the area, Takashi will lead the attack."

The former miner gaped. He had never been allowed to lead an expedition before. "R…really?"

Hikaru's face became a picture of horror. "S-Sensei! Takashi's not skilled to be a leader! He'll send us all to our doom! His only strategy is to charge!"

Takashi's face became three shades of red. "That's not true! I'm the one who figured out the Striking Venom's sole weakness!"

"That was about the only time when you decided to use your brain! There's no way I'm gonna let you lead!"

The two heroes were so engrossed in their argument, that they were completely oblivious to the fact that several engineers and pilots stare at them in both confusion and amusement.

Rika walked towards the red-head. "Do you think we should stop them?"

Ha-Ya-To took a deep breath, before walking straight towards the two. He pushed his way in between them, and yelled dramatically; "Gentlemen, gentlemen, please keep your flirting for bedtime!"

Hikaru made a quick scream, and practically tripped over himself, before scrambling madly away.

Takashi yelped, and shot up a battle machine's leg, and held on to it as though his life depended on it.

The entire lab exploded in laughter. Hikaru flushed fiercely, desperately thinking of a way to protect the remains of his pride, while Takashi realized what he had done, and was climbing down the battle machine's leg, his face as red as a tomato.

Keiken, smiling hugely at the boys' antics, walked towards them. "As you smartly said Hikaru, Takashi will lead this operation. Rika, however, will make sure that he doesn't stay with his…traditional, strategy."

"SAY WHAT?" Takashi yelled.

More sniggering from everyone around them.

Keiken waited for their unofficial audience around them to be quiet. "I said, Rika will make sure you will not risk the entire operation for nothing."

Takashi relaxed slightly. "I thought she was going to do the leading instead." He sighed. "All right. When do we leave?"

"As soon as you're done flirting."

"HA-YA-TO!"

Ryo weakily opened his eyes. The first thing that met his eyes was a color.

Green.

Everything was green.

Ryo blinked weakly. Did his eyesight fail him? He tried to look at himself.

Pain exploded through his body, making him want to scream. But he was too weak to do so. He tried to move. His body did not respond. All he knew was that he was lying in a spherical room.

Panic began bubbling inside him. What was going on? He wasn't dead, right? He remembered looking for a code, then the robots caught him…

The robots…

Green…robots…sphere…

He must be in a Shadow Crawler or something. He tried to focus his eyes on an object. He was slightly successful, as he noticed some figures move just outside the sphere. What were they doing?
His eyesight became fuzzy again.

Knowing that it was useless to insist on his eyes, he screwed them shut, and focused on his ears.

Banging, some orders were given, words were exchanged. But most of it was blurred by the glass of his green prison.

Footsteps.

Something was coming his way.

Ryo fought to control the panic inside him. He knew it was useless to either panic or resist: he was too weak to do anything.

He heard a mechanical voice speak. Though it was loud and close to him, the glass still blocked out a part of what was said.
"…found…no…brick…inform…esting."

There was a heavy pause. Ryo strained to try to hear a reply. His wishes were finally granted. Another voice was heard. But this one was no mechanical. Ryo's blood went cold. Was it really-

"Activ…sli…sequen…now."

-A human? Ryo's mind went wild. Was it a traitor? Why did the robots let him live? Who is he? And why…and why is his voice so familiar?

There was a loud, gross some gurgling sound.

Ryo opened his eyes.

Some green slimly liquid had begun entering the sphere. It was slowly-very slowly-filling up the sphere. Ryo touched it. There was a loud sizzling sound, and Ryo gritted his teeth as he felt the fabric of the glove begin to dissolve.

Memoric Fradia Acid. Robots used it to drain the humans of their memories and kill them slowly and painfully.

Ryo closed his eyes. Tears began crawl down his cheeks.

He was going to die.

"This is the last time I listen to you Ha-Ya-To." Hitomi snapped.

The red-head's face was brilliant red with embarrassment. "Hey, I didn't-"

"YOU told me to give you the map, YOU said that you've got the compass, YOU said you knew this place inside out, and now, I figure out that YOU have the worst sense of orientation in the entire mountain!"

Ha-Ya-To winced. "Look, I said I was sorry. And we're buddies right? You should know about my serious lack of orientation. Now instead of yelling, can you help me figure out where the hell we are?"

Hitomi face-palmed. A whole squadron, her Ha-YA-To, Rika and Hikaru, led by Takashi was supposed to capture a small outpost in the lower parts of the mountain.

After an attack from the robots, she and Ha-Ya-To had been separated from the group, and were trying to find their way to the outpost on their own.

Ha-Ya-To insisted to guide her towards the area with his 'incredible eagle eyesight' like he called it, and had taken the compass and the map.

Now, thirty minutes later, the two of them were hopelessly lost. It turned out that Ha-Ya-To actually had the worst sense of direction in existence.

Needless to say, Hitomi was (slightly) pissed off. For all they knew, they were in the surroundings to the Sentai Fortress-but she hadn't forgotten that Ha-Ya-To had no idea where was north (he sometimes said he mistaken the smaller side of the mountain for being the north. But Hitomi was pretty sure he was just pulling her leg).

Trying to control her anger, she activated the Blazing Falcon's GPS, only to find it broken. Mentally cursing herself to be so badly prepared for the moment, she paid more attention to the radar screen.

There was a red dot blinking. "Ha-Ya-To." she warned. "There's something ahead."

The aerial pilot immediately stopped messing with the map, and grabbed the Aero-Booster's controls, ready for battle.

Ha-Ya-To activated the boosters, and took flight. He scanned the ground safely from the sky.

"See anything?" Hitmoi asked.

"NO!" Ha-Ya-To yelled. Hitomi saw the Aero-Booster make a wild dive towards the ground. It disappeared completely from sight.

"Ha-Ya-To?" Hitomi asked.

No answer.

The female pilot sighed. "I'm going to kill him" With that, she took off and followed the Aero-Booster. She piloted her battle machine up the hill, until she gasped at what lay in front of her.

Ha-Ya-To was crouching near the remains of the Mini Rocket Speeder.

Hitomi raced towards him, her face very pale. "No way…it's impossible…" she whispered.

She watched as her friend rolled the destroyed battle machine on its side. Ha-Ya-To grunted at the effort. "Hitomi." He said.

The raven-black haired girl simply watched the rocket speeder, not noticing the fact that he had spoken.

"HITOMI!"

That snapped her out of her trance. "Y-yes?"

"There's a glowing patch here. Can you check it out? I've got my hands full trying to-ouch-hold this thing"

Hitomi looked around to where Ha-Ya-To was standing, and noticed the glowing patch. She knelt down and swiped the dirt. She gasped. "It's a code-brick!"

Ha-Ya-To looked confused. "What's it doing here?" he asked. "Did the pilot hide it here before walking away?"

Hitomi thought. "Ryo wouldn't just leave something this important behind like this for no reason. He was probably attacked by robots. But why did he hide the code-brick here? It isn't the smartest place."

Ha-Ya-To gave the destroyed speeder a shove, causing it to roll on its back. "Whatever the reason, Ryo has obviously been attacked. Let's just pocket this thing and go find him."

Hitomi nodded. Holding the code-brick tightly, she climbed back into her Blazing Falcon. After kicking the controls into life, she instantly activated the comm. System. "Hikaru, do you read me?"

The famous pilot appeared on the small screen. "What's up?" he asked.

"We found the remains of the Mini Rocket Speeder. Ryo has been attacked. We got the code-brick, but Ryo isn't around. Where do you think he is?"

The pilot thought carefully. "What are your coordinates?"

Hitomi looked on the map, and gave them to him.

Hikaru looked perplexed. "Well you're in the surroundings of the Sentai Fortress, and coincidently relatively close to the Shikara Outpost. Knowing the Robots, they'd probably drain Ryo of his memories. So it's more likely that he's already at the outpost."

"Got it. Um…the outpost is in which direction?"

Hikaru looked slightly confused. "Don't you have a map?"

"Ha-Ya-To has-"

"Oh right, you're Mr. I-Don't-Know-Where-I-Am." Hikaru interrupted. "It's just south east from your position."

"Got it. Thanks."

"No prob. See you down there."

Hitomi switched the comm. System off. "Ha-Ya-To, give me the compass now. Or else…"

"Or else what?"

"Or else I'll use you as a target practice. In real life."

Ha-Ya-To tossed her the tool. "I hope you know how to use this too."
Ignoring the comment, Hitomi proceeded into finding the south-eastern direction. "This way."

Takashi grinned evilly. "All right. Are you all in position?" he asked in the mike. Hearing a chorus of 'yes', he raised his gun. "CHHHAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGEEEE E!"

There was a loud roar, and seven Golden Guardians emerged from the forest, blasting away at the robot outpost.

Taken completely by surprise, the robots had little time to react. Those closest to the battle machines raced into them in order to fight back, and the remaining robots desperately tried to find ways to escape the huge green beams.

Despite the fact that the robots had been ambushed, some were already in their battle machines.

Four Shadow Crawlers, along with two Thunder Furies blazed away at the charging humans. From the skies, three Storm Lashers soared from the clouds and fired their weapons.

For a second, the humans were stopped. Protecting themselves with their shields they fired at the enemy units.

Takashi grabbed the mike, his battle machine hiding safely behind his Bladed Shield. "Hikaru! Are you and the others ready?"

"Yeah."

"FIRE!"

There was a short pause, and green beams began raining from the skies. Several of them smashing right through the Storm Lashers' bladed turbines. Some missed completely, but either way, the robots were once again taken by surprise.

The three Storm Lashers, their engines blown, spiraled to the ground, before igniting in a huge explosion.

The Blazing Falcon, The Aero Booster and the Sky Guardian lowered themselves from the clouds.

There was another huge cheer, and the Golden Guardians, led by Takashi's Blade Titan, raced into the outpost.

The robots fought mercilessly, but it was obvious that they were fighting a losing battle. The Two Thunder Furies fired all their weapons at a Golden Guardian. The red and white battle machine was stopped in its tracks when the volley of firepower hit it. The Golden Guardian sparked irregularly, and was unable to defend itself properly.

The pilot panicked, raising his shield to defend himself, he forgot he was pulling the trigger of his battle machine.

The canon fired a huge stream of green energy, which destroyed a small control tower, which fell over, crushing the two Thunder Furies. The pilot watched the remains of the enemy battle machines, trying to register what exactly happened.

"Hey! Red seven, are you all right?" someone asked

The pilot shook his head. "Uhhh, yeah I think so."

"Nice shot there. Keep it up. And don't throw yourself in suicidal attacks like you just did."

"Yes blue two. Thanks."

As the humans crushed the remaining robot resistance, Hitomi raced inside the prisoner cell, her Blazing Falcon's lights illuminating the interior.

"Ryo…Ryo…where are you?" she muttered as empty green spheres raced past her.

Two blasts hit the upper right side of the Blazing Falcon. Hitomi noticed two Iron Drones firing at her with their bazookas, trying to protect a prisoner pod.

Hitomi saw someone inside, slowly sinking in the thick liquid used. Ryo.

She felt her heart race. She knew that the Blazing Falcon could easily withstand the blasts of the bazookas, but if they hit the cockpit, she might not make it.

Knowing that the blasts of her battle machine could injure the poor engineer, she opened the cockpit and grabbed a blaster. She fired four shots.

The first three went right through the Iron Drones, destroying them both instantly. The last one hit the prisoner's pod, shattering it.

Without missing a beat, Hitomi climbed out of the Blazing Flacon, and raced towards the pod. Drawing her Katana, she slashed the glass, breaking it, and releasing both the liquid and Ryo.

Dropping her weapon, she knelt down, and held the engineer close to her. "Ryo! Ryo! Come on snap out of it!" She yelled, gently shaking him.

Ryo opened his eyes weakily. "Hit…omi…" he croaked weakily. He managed to push himself to her height. "Beware…" he whispered. "There is a trai…" he gasped, coughed, before falling limp in her arms.

^^ I'm proud with what I've written. I hope you've enjoyed it too.

Hikaru's Canadian? I dunno. Lol. I just see him being one. Either that, or I'm mad (which I probably already am).

I've noticed that Takashi is always standing in the middle of the group, but is not the leader. So I decided to change that as putting him in charge of the operation. ^^ I really see this argument taking place.